The Art Connections Foundation is the idea of two brothers, seemingly representing two completely different worlds.
Piotr Drozdowski - the younger of the two brothers, always interested in culture, a man with a restless soul who has always wanted to unleash his creative potential and create ambitious events. Dariusz Drozdowski - the older brother, a scientific mind with a lifelong interest in history, but with a strong grasp of numbers, an orderly, precise-minded and matter-of-fact man. Bydgoszcz became a good place for these two different characters to work together. It is here, in a seemingly unremarkable, post-industrial city, a city of cultural events and sport, open and diverse in terms of its identity, that the Art Connections Foundation was established, which will weave a story about Bydgoszcz's identity.
Piotr Drozdowski - a graduate of political science, specialising in journalism, at UKW in Bydgoszcz, with a postgraduate diploma in Cultural Management at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. For years, he was associated with the MCK in Bydgoszcz, where he co-created festivals known all over the world. Head of the Barka Lemara studio until 2019. Permanently involved in promoting the history of Bydgoszcz's industry. Co-initiator of the Year of Bydgoszcz Industrial Heritage in 2018. The programme director of the Tehofest Festival 2017-2018. Co-initiator of the musical play Szyprowie. Coordinator of the Industrial History of Bydgoszcz action on behalf of the ICC co-created with Gazeta Wyborcza. Since 2019 Artistic Manager of the Artus Court Cultural Centre in Toruń responsible for coordinating the current programme of the artistic department, including coordination of the flagship festivals of Artus Court. Passionate about all innovative cultural audiovisual projects. At the Foundation, responsible for organising content-related activities. The originator of a unique festival in Poland, which you will all soon hear about.
Dariusz Drozdowski - a graduate of the 1st High School in Toruń, completed his master's degree at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Control Engineering at the Gdańsk University of Technology. He has many years of experience in managing an investment programme and holds an IPMA D project management certificate. A happy husband and father of two daughters. Privately a lover of medieval history and Slavic ethnic music. Responsible for the project and financial model of the Art Connections Foundation.
Regular contributors:
Magdalena Ewa Buczkowska
A long-time educator, therapist, and coordinator of volunteer work at festivals such as the Tofifest International Film Festival in Toruń. The organiser of free time for young people - theatre (for 9 years she was a member of the Studio P theatre from the Municipal Youth Centre in Toruń and ran a student theatre in the Municipal Youth Centre), hobby groups (for several years she has been running an urbex group travelling all over Poland and spreading the slogan "save from oblivion"). The organiser of musical events. She is passionate about living culture, forgotten art, the roots of philosophical thoughts, human nature and the search for goodness. She believes that every human being has vast reserves of creativity and love within them. She feels that her role is to discover this in people, to show that there are many paths to follow. At the Art Connections Foundation, she gives the team her positive attitude to life, her enthusiasm for the impossible and her harmony of action. She tries to nurture the guiding idea that is part of the foundation's name - 'Connections'.
Agata Rajmuniak
Her motto is "There is no fantasy which the human will and reason have failed to transform into reality." (William Shakespeare). On a daily basis, she delivers actionable marketing campaigns. With 10 years of experience in running promotional projects in the media and publishing industry. PR professional and subscription sales manager. In her work, she uses the latest techniques in developing marketing solutions, advertising campaigns, branding, and new products. Subscription sales analysis is her middle name. Graduate of the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz. In her previous life, she was an interior decorator. After hours, a lover of stories about socks escaping from a washing machine. A fan of cats, although she does not have one. Cycling enthusiast, amateur in domestic and foreign tourism. Mum of naughty Szymi. A native of Bydgoszcz, she lives permanently in Fordon, unjustly called a bedroom of Bydgoszcz.
Paulina Kobza
Cultural anthropologist, trainer, training, and conference specialist. Graduate of the University of Warsaw and the School of NGO Trainers STOP. For 10 years, she worked for a state cultural institution where she was responsible for training offerings and professionalization conferences for employees of cultural institutions. She is an activist for NGOs related to local identity, sightseeing, cultural and natural heritage as well as diversity, inclusion, and multiculturalism. Her great passion is nature and all aspects of living close to nature.
Jakub Szymczak
Associated with the cultural industry since 2010. Active in the widely understood stage technology, working in parallel with the camera lens. Author of music videos and producer of film recordings of concerts. Director of the documentary film "Evolution of the Sound of the Piano". For many years he realised light during concerts and performances at the MCK in Bydgoszcz, he was also involved with the Młyny Rothera Science and Culture Centre. Happy husband and father of little Helenka.
Rafał Kołacki
An artistic freelancer and curator, his interests have always been related to music. As an archaeologist, he was mainly interested in archaeo-musicology as an ethnologist in ethnomusicology and musical youth subcultures. As a practitioner mainly hardcore/punk and ethnic music (especially ritual music). He is associated with the following bands: HATI, T'ien Lai, Molok Mun, Innercity Ensemble, Mammoth Ulthana, and DAO. Currently, without abandoning his old fascinations, he is passionate about exploring the sonic fabric of the city. He is the originator and co-creator of the Tonopolis multimedia project, which was designed to subjectively characterize the sound environment of Toruń. He is a participant in the educational project Dźwiękospacery (Sound Walks), as part of which he conducts workshops with children and students, trying to sensitize them to the sounds of the ionosphere and conscious, deep listening. He records listens, and creates, but also theoretically analyses the material he has collected, wanting to address in his research the problem of the mutual relationship between sound (how we hear) and the characteristics and social roles we adopt. He is also interested in the communicative function of sound, how, where, and when sounds become messages. He is also active as a solo artist, with a passion for field recording art (in its various variants), acoustic percussion music, and electronic drone music. He records music for films (Panopticon 2013), radio plays, and fairy tales (Tales for the Brave 2013, Skippers, a simple story heard on water 2017). To date, he has released several solo albums: Tonopolis. Impression from the Town (2010), Panoptikon (2013), Ninkyo Dantai (2014), Aux oreilles d'un etranger (2015). In March 2016, his next album Hijra premiered. NOISE from the Jungle and in August 2017 an album with Łukasz Jędrzejczak and Ela Schulz Sawt/Sur which is their joint sound-photographic account of their stay in Marrakech. He is the author of sound installations. He runs the independent record label Noisen Records. For several years he has also curated the international festivals CoCArt Music Festival, Fab_In_Festival, and the sound event series :audioskopia. He was the coordinator of the project and the album "Well Child" as part of the Struktury Kultury project.
Jacek Doroszenko
Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, author of audiovisual productions, video works, sound installations, and internet projects. Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in 2020, the City of Toruń in the field of culture in 2011, and a beneficiary of numerous international residency programs, including Atelierhaus Salzamt Linz in Austria, The Island - Resignified Lefkada in Greece, Kunstnarhuset Messen Ålvik in Norway, Petrohradska Kolektiv Prague in the Czech Republic, Del Bianco Fondazione in Italy, Klaipeda Culture Communication Center in Lithuania, AAVC Hangar Barcelona in Spain. As part of his own studio Pineum, Jacek Doroszenko produces multimedia projects for companies and cultural institutions and creates visual identification systems and websites, e.g. Starak Family Foundation, Lado ABC, ING Polish Art Foundation, and Art Connections Foundation.
Jacek Doroszenko has exhibited his works and projects in numerous festivals and institutions, including the Matadero Contemporary Art Center in Madrid, the FIESP Cultural Center Ruth Cardoso in Sao Paulo, The Wrong New Digital Art Biennale in Rio de Janeiro, Transmission Arts Festival in Athens, Historic Centre of Athens, Fait Gallery in Brno, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts in Vancouver, Exgirlfriend Gallery in Berlin, Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław, Narodowe Forum Muzyki im. Witolda Lutosławskiego we Wrocławiu, CSW Znaki Czasu in Toruń, the Propaganda Gallery in Warsaw, the CSW Łaźnia in Gdańsk, the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, the Galeria Jedna Dva Tři in Prague, the Kasia Michalski Gallery in Warsaw, Starak Family Foundation in Warsaw, Artists Colony in Gdansk, Wozownia Art Gallery in Torun, Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples, GENERATE! Festival for Electronic Arts in Tübingen, Open Source Art Festival in Sopot, ISEA International Symposium on Electronic Art in Vancouver, Athens Digital Arts Festival, INCUBARTE International Art Festival in Valencia, FESTIVAL IN OUT in Gdansk, Survival Art Festival in Wroclaw, FILE Electronic Language International Festival in Sao Paulo and many others. Jacek Doroszenko's visual work is echoed in the field of music and audio activities. His musical compositions have been released in the form of internationally acclaimed albums, including Infinite Values, Time Released Sound in the USA; Wide Grey, Eilean Records in France; Soundreaming, Audiobulb Records in the UK.
- https://doroszenko.com
- https://pineum.com
- https://soundreaming.org
- https://mammoth-ulthana.eu
- https://ampscent.eu